Friday, March 12, 2004
the mailman done brung me some music videos
NetFlix is as it again. They are eager to please me, and I am eager to be pleased in return. Anyone who knows me will agree that I am a guy who's eager to be pleased. Yes.
I asked Netflix to ask the mailman to bring me these dvds. The mailman drives a black 1991 Nissan Maxima, and is of some sort of Asian or Pacific stock. Whenever we have a package too large for our tiny mailbox, he'll leave it at our door, knock, and run. When Netflix asked the mailman to bring these dvds to me, the mailman agreed.
On Wednesday the mailman brought me the Superchunk dvd, which I believe is called Crowding Up Your Visual Field. I forget what song has that line as a lyric, but I think it's a relatively recent one. Superchunk's never been the most exciting of bands, but their modesty and consistency are commendable, and they have always been imminently respectable. As much as I like their music, however, I've got to admit that their videos are pretty bad. Other than a couple of good videos directed by Peyton Reed (the guy who went on to make Bring it On), pretty much every 'Chunk video consists of shots of the band standing around playing the song interspersed with random nonsense and/or very literal reenactments of song lyrics/titles. An example would be the video for "Fishing", which cuts between Superchunk playing the song on the porch of the drummer's house, the band guzzling milk and eating popsicles on the back of a flatbed, and some scary camo hunter dude fishing and baiting lures. Or "Throwing Things", wherein shots of the band playing in front of the singer's parents' house while people throw things from out of the attic window are broken up with frequent close-ups of the bass-player's knees; knees, of course, figure prominently in the song's chorus. But that's what most of their videos are like, the band just rocking out while some other random person does something vaguely related to the song's title or lyrics. They do reflect Superchunk's laidback, smalltown attitude, and the band's normal dude image, but they're also as boring as a billion Superbowls.
There is one certifiably great music video on here, though, and it's Peyton Reed's "Driveway to Driveway" video. It's well shot, it has a story that's not just a reenactment of the song, and the drummer's portrayal of a dandified fop is some good stuff. Reed's video for "Watery Hands", with David Cross and Janeane Garofalo, tries a little too hard in spots but is pretty good as well. It's pretty weird that a guy who started off making Superchunk videos is now making the Fantastic Four movie. Anyway, other than those two, though, Superchunk's videos are pretty much irrelevant.
Thankfully there's a lot of other stuff on this disc, too. Each band member did seperate commentary tracks, and there's usually two or three commentaries for each video. They don't really say anything all that interesting, but some of them are funny at least, especially the drummer's. There's a documentary called Quest for Sleep that follows the band on a world tour in late 2001; in showing how boring touring can be, it succeeds in becoming really boring itself. The highlight of Quest for Sleep are the fleeting glimpses of former Archers of Loaf bassplayer and occasional Superchunk roadie Matt Gentling. The best stuff on this disc, other than the awesome video-game versions of Superchunk hits used as menu music, is probably the live footage, which makes up most of the "bonus" material. An animated "video" that looks like it was made by some high school kid on an Amiga is pretty awesome. It's also really cool to see a tape of Superchunk's first ever show, if only because of Mac's uncharacteristically big and poofy long hair.
But so anyway, as a long-time Superchunk fan I found this to be pretty interesting overall. Even though the videos are mostly bad, and the documentary is sorta boring, I still enjoyed watching them.
NetFlix is as it again. They are eager to please me, and I am eager to be pleased in return. Anyone who knows me will agree that I am a guy who's eager to be pleased. Yes.
I asked Netflix to ask the mailman to bring me these dvds. The mailman drives a black 1991 Nissan Maxima, and is of some sort of Asian or Pacific stock. Whenever we have a package too large for our tiny mailbox, he'll leave it at our door, knock, and run. When Netflix asked the mailman to bring these dvds to me, the mailman agreed.
On Wednesday the mailman brought me the Superchunk dvd, which I believe is called Crowding Up Your Visual Field. I forget what song has that line as a lyric, but I think it's a relatively recent one. Superchunk's never been the most exciting of bands, but their modesty and consistency are commendable, and they have always been imminently respectable. As much as I like their music, however, I've got to admit that their videos are pretty bad. Other than a couple of good videos directed by Peyton Reed (the guy who went on to make Bring it On), pretty much every 'Chunk video consists of shots of the band standing around playing the song interspersed with random nonsense and/or very literal reenactments of song lyrics/titles. An example would be the video for "Fishing", which cuts between Superchunk playing the song on the porch of the drummer's house, the band guzzling milk and eating popsicles on the back of a flatbed, and some scary camo hunter dude fishing and baiting lures. Or "Throwing Things", wherein shots of the band playing in front of the singer's parents' house while people throw things from out of the attic window are broken up with frequent close-ups of the bass-player's knees; knees, of course, figure prominently in the song's chorus. But that's what most of their videos are like, the band just rocking out while some other random person does something vaguely related to the song's title or lyrics. They do reflect Superchunk's laidback, smalltown attitude, and the band's normal dude image, but they're also as boring as a billion Superbowls.
There is one certifiably great music video on here, though, and it's Peyton Reed's "Driveway to Driveway" video. It's well shot, it has a story that's not just a reenactment of the song, and the drummer's portrayal of a dandified fop is some good stuff. Reed's video for "Watery Hands", with David Cross and Janeane Garofalo, tries a little too hard in spots but is pretty good as well. It's pretty weird that a guy who started off making Superchunk videos is now making the Fantastic Four movie. Anyway, other than those two, though, Superchunk's videos are pretty much irrelevant.
Thankfully there's a lot of other stuff on this disc, too. Each band member did seperate commentary tracks, and there's usually two or three commentaries for each video. They don't really say anything all that interesting, but some of them are funny at least, especially the drummer's. There's a documentary called Quest for Sleep that follows the band on a world tour in late 2001; in showing how boring touring can be, it succeeds in becoming really boring itself. The highlight of Quest for Sleep are the fleeting glimpses of former Archers of Loaf bassplayer and occasional Superchunk roadie Matt Gentling. The best stuff on this disc, other than the awesome video-game versions of Superchunk hits used as menu music, is probably the live footage, which makes up most of the "bonus" material. An animated "video" that looks like it was made by some high school kid on an Amiga is pretty awesome. It's also really cool to see a tape of Superchunk's first ever show, if only because of Mac's uncharacteristically big and poofy long hair.
But so anyway, as a long-time Superchunk fan I found this to be pretty interesting overall. Even though the videos are mostly bad, and the documentary is sorta boring, I still enjoyed watching them.
